One person died in a fire in Dunoon’s Siyahlala informal settlement on Wednesday 7 December which destroyed 11 shacks and left 21 people homeless, including mothers and children.
The 33-year-old man who burnt to death was a tenant in Mzoxolo Rala’s five-room shack.
Rala said he arrived home from the Eastern Cape on Thursday to find nothing but charred zinc on his plot. Like other residents affected by the fire, he lost all household belongings.
One of the people who lost their home was 44-year-old Nosenzele Quku, who lived in a six-room shack with her five children, husband, and sister.
All their household belongings, including child birth certificates, South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) cards, and identity documents were destroyed by the blaze.
“We heard people screaming. I came out to check and saw smoke, then I went back in and with my sister and husband started taking the children out. We lost everything,” said Quku.
She said she has no idea what caused the fire.
Community leader Thokoza Mxotwa said the fire victims did not have funds to buy materials to rebuild their homes, with most seeking temporary accommodation from neighbours.
Also, in a separate incident on 1 December, a fire destroyed one shack, an RDP house, an upgraded RDP house apartment and one vehicle in Ngweventsha Road, Dunoon.
City of Cape Town Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell confirmed both fire incidents, saying one person died in the fire on Wednesday 7 December.
Powell said the fire 1 December left eight people destitute.